The good thing is, we still loved each other

Story by Farida from Afghanistan. Native language Dari. This year Farida begins her first year of study in America. As you read this story you will understand what a huge accomplishment it is for her and her family, and we wish her well!

I AM a Hazara Afghan girl. Since I was a child, I have lived in a
region of Kabul where only a group of people called Hazara
have lived. Where I went to school, our teachers taught us that other
ethnicities that lived in Afghanistan were
cruel to Hazara people. I learned that thousands and thousands
of Hazara people were killed. Hundreds of them left their houses
and emigrated.

In addition, there has always been less opportunity for Hazara people than other ethnicities. Hazara are poorer than the others, and all these things caused me to dislike the other ethnicities because they have all the power and they control everything while we can only stand by and watch.

When I was fourteen, I started to have opportunities to get out of my community. I went to a boarding school called SOLA [School of Leadership, Afghanistan]. At SOLA there are students from all over Afghanistan. They are from different ethnicities, from the two different Muslim sects, and many more differences. We even speak different languages. But at SOLA we all made friends. We were talking to each other and we had good time.

One night my roommate, who is a different ethnicity from me, told me that Hazara are non-Muslim because Hazara
are not praying to God; they are praying to someone else. She then started to say many more bad and very unkind things. Finally, I said,
“You know these ‘ugly people’ that you are talking about, one of them is
me! Did you know that these ‘ugly people’ were very oppressed, they were
killed, imprisoned, and emigrated?” I then told her all the things I
knew.

She told me that she knew that I am a Hazara, but not all Hazara people are like me. I told her plainly that all Hazara
people are not good people, but all of them are not bad either!
During our discussion we figured out that we are praying to the same
God. We do many things in the same way. I learned that her father was
also killed by the Taliban.

After this experience, I went through this discussion with many other girls from different ethnicities and I learned that they think really badly about Hazara
people. But the good thing is, we still loved each other—and by being
with each other we figured out that not all the things we hear are
right. I learned that whatever happened in the past, we should leave it
in the past. We should always try to forget about bad things in the past
and make a good future for ourselves and everyone.